Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
shroff [shrof] ExamplesWord Origin noun
- (in India) a banker or money-changer.
- (in the Far East, especially China) a native expert employed to test coins and separate the base from the genuine.
verb (used with object)
- to test (coins) in order to separate the base from the genuine.
Origin of shroff 1610–20; earlier sharoffe Portuguese xarrafo, probably Gujarati śaraf Arabic ṣayrāfī moneychanger Examples from the Web for shroff Historical Examples of shroff
I can borrow it again from the shroff, just for the present.
Maud Diver
They did not ask the shroff, the Chinese accountant, what he thought of it.
Ellen Newbold La Motte
I think an enterprising tradesman got some of it, and a shroff gobbled the rest—or else I spent it.
The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume Edition
Rudyard Kipling
He left his affairs in the hands of the shroff, the Chinese accountant, who could be trusted to manage them for a short time.
Ellen Newbold La Motte
The shroff was very fearful, but as he was to be compradore now, to do the work of a European, he could not show fear.
Ellen Newbold La Motte
British Dictionary definitions for shroff shroff noun
- (in China, Japan, etc, esp formerly) an expert employed to separate counterfeit money or base coin from the genuine
- (in India) a moneychanger or banker
verb
- (tr) to test (money) and separate out the counterfeit and base
Word Origin for shroff C17: from Portuguese xarrafo, from Hindi sarrāf moneychanger, from Arabic